Make an easy, homemade thin crust pizza dough in 15 minutes! Made with simple ingredients like flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water, and olive oil. This thin crust pizza dough recipe allows you to make fresh, homemade pizzas from start to finish in 30 minutes.
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Homemade pizza should almost be as simple as ordering pizza, but without the added ingredients and paying a pretty penny for different pizza options.
Growing up, I remember pizza always took some planning to make. The crust took an hour or two because of the kneading and rising.
Pizza wasn’t an easy meal.
Until my mom found this recipe and its been our go-to pizza crust ever since!
I’ve tweaked it a little bit and did some experimenting, but thin crust pizza dough recipe is great to throw a pizza together on a busy night.
Why you will love this Thin Crust Pizza Dough Recipe
Our family’s thin crust pizza dough doesn’t require any special equipment or technique. If you have your basic mixing equipment, you are all set to go!
This recipe uses simple ingredients you probably have in our house. No need to run to the store.
You can have a pizza on the table in 30 minutes. It’s that simple!
What flour is the best for making thin crust pizza dough?
For this recipe, I have found all purpose flour to be the best. I’ve worked with bread flour before, but it doesn’t seem to stretch out as nice compared to all purpose.
The lower the gluten for this recipe, the better.
This may be opposite of a lot of pizza dough recipes, but that’s what I have found.
The lower gluten requirement is wonderful if you want to mix in some ancient grains flours such as Einkorn or Kamut without any difficulty.
I find I can do half Einkorn flour, and half All purpose flour in the pizza dough without any difference.
For Kamut flour, I have substituted it one-for-one before, because it has the most similar gluten structure. I have found that when using the Kamut flour, letting it sit 5-10 minutes longer in the bowl with the olive oil helps the pizza dough.
If you are wanting to incorporate Whole Wheat flour to your thin crust pizza dough, I recommend 1/4 – 1/2 cup of Whole Wheat flour, and 1 – 1 1/4 c. All Purpose flour. Any more than that and you start to affect the texture of the pizza dough.
What does oil do in thin crust pizza dough?
One difference this recipe has compared to others is it uses more olive oil. For our thin crust pizza dough, the olive oil helps give it flavor and stretch when spreading it out on the pizza stone or baking sheet.
Sometimes when spreading out my dough on my pizza stone, the dough doesn’t like to stretch if it gets too dry. I simply rub my fingers in a little bit of the left over olive oil in the bowl, and then the dough stretches beautifully!
I will get holes my thin crust when I make this recipe sometimes, but it is very easy to patch before I stick it in my oven.
I also find that the oil also helps make it non-stick to my pizza stone or baking sheet when making it. Clean up is very easy and hardly anything is stuck on afterwards!
Can you use a different oil than olive oil in pizza crust?
Yes, you can! I have used avacado and vegetable oil before with good results.
Olive oil, I feel, gives this thin crust it a much richer flavor and I prefer to use it the most.
Ingredients
- All purpose Flour
- Yeast (either Active dry yeast or Instant will work)
- Sugar
- Salt
- Yeast
- Water
- Olive Oil
Equipment
- Pizza Stone (optional) or a Baking Sheet
- Mixing Bowl
- Dry & Liquid Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Mixing Spoon
Directions
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast together.
Add warm water and 1 Tablespoon of olive oil; stir until dough forms a ball in the bowl.
Into the bowl, add the remaining 3 Tablespoons of oil and mix only until all the pizza dough has oil on the surface.
Let the dough rest in the bowl while preheating the oven to 425 degree.
When oven is preheated, on a pizza stone spread out the dough to about one inch from the all around the edge of the stone. If using a baking sheet, spread dough out to cover the bottom of the pan.
Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Once finished, remove the pizza crust from the oven and place on the desired toppings. Bake in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes longer.
Enjoy!
Notes
To use Kamut flour, substitute 1:1 for All purpose flour.
To use Einkorn flour, use up to 3/4 cup or Einkorn flour + 3/4 cup All purpose flour.
To use Whole Wheat flour, use 1/4 – 1/2 cup Whole Wheat flour + 1 – 1 1/4 cup All purpose flour.
Olive oil can be substituted for avacado oil, or a mild vegetable oil.
For easier spreading of the thin crust pizza dough, make sure your fingers are well oiled from the extra oil in the mixing bowl.
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you!
Easy Thin Crust Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 Tablesoon + 3 Tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
- Add in the water and 1 Tablespoon oil to the dry ingredients, and mix together until dough clings together in a ball.
- Once the pizza dough forms a ball in the bowl, add in the remaining 3 Tablespoons of oil and mix so that oil just coats the outside of the pizza dough ball.
- Let rest until oven is fully preheated and spread out on a pizza stone or baking sheet.
- Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
- When done, top pizza crust with desired pizza toppings and bake for another 10 – 15 minutes.
Notes
- After adding in the 3 Tablespoons of oil, the dough will look very oily which is normal. The dough will not taste oily once baked.
- For easier spreading the dough out on the pizza stone, make sure your fingers have a little oil on them.
- Active dry yeast is what I usually use for this recipe, but Instant yeast will work as well.
My family loves making homemade pizzas! I typically default to the store-bought because I’m intimidated by homemade, but this recipe actually looks doable. Love the step-by-step pictures!
Best easy pizza crust! Super tasty, with natural ingredients without all of the additives that you see, in the store bought ready, to use pizza crusts. My husband, kids, and grandkids love it. I would highly recommend. I have used this recipe several times. Love it!!!!
I am so glad you and your family love it! Thank you!
What type of yeast do you use for this pizza recipe?
I usually use active yeast, but I have used instant yeast as well. I haven’t noticed a big difference between either one for this recipe.
Can you make the dough ahead of time and put in the fridge for later?
Yes, you can! I’ve kept it for 1 day in the fridge (starting in the morning, and making it in the evening), but I haven’t tried it for longer than that.
I just found this recipe and made a pizza for dinner. It is absolutely delicious and was so fast to throw together for a quick dinner. This will be a regular in our house. Thank you!
I love the insight of needing lower gluten for this recipe – and the increased versatility of being able to use different flour types!
Love this recipe! Please give me hints on freezing, either rolled out in pan or dough. Thank you.
I’m so glad you like it! I’ve been experimenting with freezing it, and after baking for the first 5 minutes, I let it cool and then top with my pizza toppings before wrapping and freezing. Then, I bake it for the remaining time when I pull it out of the freezer. It’s tasted pretty good so far!